A group of about 30 men with clubs attacked journalists Gerald Kankya and Simon Amanyire in the town of Fort Portal in western Ugandaon January 23, 2015, Kankya told CPJ. The assailants beat the journalists, breaking one of Kankya's teeth and bruising his legs and arms, the journalist said. Amanyire escaped without serious injury.

Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.

New
York, February 18, 2014--A journalist in the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo died on Sunday from gunshot wounds he sustained in a shootout between
Congolese troops and Ugandan rebels, according to news reports.

The printed word is thriving in parts of Africa, but advertisers' clout means they can often quietly control what is published.
By Tom Rhodes

Kenyans read election coverage in the Mathare slum in Nairobi, the capital, on March 9, 2013. One reason that advertising revenue trumps circulation for East Africa's newspapers is that readers often share papers to save money. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)

Though attacks against the press diminished compared with recent years, authorities continued to crack down on journalists for critical coverage. Police were accused of being the perpetrators in a third of the assaults on journalists. The government instigated the longest arbitrary suspension of the press in recent years after police raided two dailies, The Monitor and Red Pepper, and silenced them for 10 days in connection with their coverage. Two radio stations at the same premises were also suspended. Police ignored for a week a court order allowing the dailies to resume publishing. In July, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, a newly appointed internal security minister, told the local press he would enforce stricter media regulation policies and said he would be monitoring the formerly suspended publications. Authorities continued to censor journalists, preventing them from covering public functions. In August, Parliament passed the Public Order Management Bill, which criminalizes public meetings without express police permission and is seen by local and international press freedom and civil society organizations as a tool to suppress opposition rallies and subsequent media coverage.

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Taylor Krauss, an American journalist,
freelance filmmaker, and founder of the testimonial website Voices of Rwanda, traveled to Uganda
roughly two weeks ago to conduct some filming in hopes of pitching footage later
to various media outlets. Krauss is no stranger to the region; he has been traveling
back and forth to the country for nine years. But now that he has been
arrested, held for three days without charge, had his equipment confiscated,
and finally forced out of the country, this probably marks his last visit. It
probably also marks bad news for the press in Uganda.

Somalis, Syrians flee violence; Iran crackdown deepens

Fifty-five
journalists fled their homes in the past year with help from the Committee to
Protect Journalists. The most common reason to go into exile was the threat of
violence, such as in Somalia and Syria, two of the most deadly countries in the
world for the profession. Others fled the threat of prison, especially in Iran,
where the government deepened its crackdown ahead of elections. A CPJ special report
by Nicole Schilit